I met this woman in Safeway that had saved all of her change for the last 4 years... and then when she cashed it in, she had anough to TAKE A TRIP TO CANCOON! She was giving me this little lecture in the store about saving change and how it really adds up over time, and I started to think about it. As soon as we can afford to save anything, I am going to do this too. Right now by the end of the month our change gets deposited so Don can get gas for his comute. lol...

Love Val

They must have a lot of change! We save ours and total it yearly and it's usually around $200. Now, after 4 years that would be $800, but that's not getting my whole family to Cancun.

Peace,

Kimberly

Wow! That's a whole lot o' change! One of the suggestions I picked up on from Suze Orman was about saving change. She was talking about how you should always pay something extra toward your debt above the minimum payments. She said that if you don't have think you have any extra money in your budget to put toward debt, then you need to start saving your change. She says to pay for everything with bills - i.e, if you owe $4.10, pay with $5.00 even if you have the 10 cents in your pocket. She says that on average you can save $30-$40 a month to pay toward debt. I haven't had that much luck with my change, but every little bit helps I guess. It'll be a while before I'm booking my flight to Cancun though. ;)

Okay, I have no desire to go to Cancun. :D I'd be paying for sunburn! LOL

But saving change DOES add up SO quick! I can't imagine being disciplined enough to save it for FOUR YEARS! That woman deserves her vacation!!

We do like you do, Val. Every week or two I count out the change and it goes for dh's gas for the van. But hey, every little bit helps somewhere!

Maybe come summer time we'll be able to save it. :)

I think I saw this in Living magazine of all places, but we have an old coffee can and we have started filling it with change, and we are trying to fill the can so that next XMas we can donate it to charity, the kids get to choose. I thought it was a painless way to save , and it keeps the kids thinking about helping others all year instead of just at Xmas when we pull those tags off the giving trees, and put our change in the salvation army bucket.

I love saving change! Every year we used to save change and then use it (about $150) for DD at Disneyland. She is old enough to save her own so I admit I haven't saved much. We do bi-mothly poker with my family- now that's a time to save change :D DH and I did really well on my birthday! LOL!!!

My BIL saved his change for about eight years and has about $1800! There is change all over the bedroom! LOL!

The boys collect change for their piggy bank. DH is a banker, so it's a big ritual, visiting him at work, and talking to the teller, and the bank manager.

I use change for gas, and milk, but that's another story.

What do you do, if you don't save change, throw it away?

Ari

We have always saved our change. Dh empties his pockets every day after work. I empty out the change in my purse about twice a week. The change goes into a basket and then about every 2 weeks it is dumped into a large glass bottle (the kind used for those water dispensers). We usually end up with $500 - $600 a year. Last year it went towards a trip to Memphis. The year before it went for vehicle repairs/maintenance (tires and new brakes)

It is a very simple way to save a few hundred dollars..especially if everyone in the family pitches in. I do not require my children to include their own change.. Jack already saves his money in a piggybank. Taylor has his own saving's account.. and Keaton spends every penny the second he gets it :) .. but they all *do* add to it from time to time.